Garth Brooks concerts could face legal action from local residents

Local residents opposed to five Garth Brooks concerts being held in Croke Park have notified the event’s organisers of potential legal action.

In an open letter released this evening, the Croke Park Residents Committee say they believe the concerts will not only breach existing clauses in Croke Park’s permission to hold such events, but also contravenes United Nations charters on human rights.

“There was no consultation with our group prior to the announcement of the Garth Brooks concerts by your company,” they say, “or the Croke Park Stadium Company or anyone else involved with you in the Garth Brooks concert promotion.”

Legal action

The letter goes on to notify the concert organisers, Aiken Promotions, of potential legal action if the gigs go ahead.

“There is the very real prospect that this matter will be taken to the courts to be adjudicated on,” they say.

However, the Committee have suggested an alternative, something they’re called “Plan B – The Bruce plan”, where the concerts would be held in other locations around Ireland.

“This was good enough for Bruce Springsteen and it should be good enough for Garth Brooks”, they say.

Here’s the open letter in full. Click here for a PDF.

To whom it concerns,

We write to inform you that we are strongly opposed to your proposed application for a license to hold five Garth Brooks concerts in Croke Park Stadium this July and your actions to date in selling tickets in advance. Such an application, we believe, breaches terms of the existing planning permissions as well as breaching agreements with residents group/s both written and oral and is a breach of our rights to quality of life and our property rights as enshrined in UN and European documents relating to Environmental, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that our government are signatories of. There was no consultation with our group prior to the announcement of the Garth Brooks concerts by your company, or the Croke Park Stadium Company or anyone else involved with you in the Garth Brooks concert promotion.

Representation

In a letter that Mr. Jim Clarke of your company wrote on Feb 20th 2014 (copy attached for ease of reference), to Charlie Lowe Executive Manager, Dublin City Council, you mentioned, arising from a meeting you and the Croke Park GAA had with politicians, that there was no specific details about precisely who should represent residents. As you know the Croke Park GAA/Pairc An Chrocaigh Teo (“PCT”) already tried to hand-pick attendees for a meeting with themselves, yourselves and residents that ended up in a shambles after the Croke Park GAA/PCT/Aiken Promotions approach that the concerts be taken as a foregone conclusion and that we go cap-in-hand seeking a legacy in consideration of granting you this small favour (We jest!).

If you needed to check who has been working for the local community relative to Croke Park Stadium impacts you could have started with a check on Dublin City Councils planning portal to see who had been making observations in relation to Croke Parks myriad of planning applications over the past number of years. You might have spotted our group in the mix.

Notice of potential legal action to stop concerts

We appreciate that your proposed staging of the 5 Garth Brooks concerts is a major corporate project with many implications for various parties that you are involved with in the project. Following our deliberations we believe that there are significant grounds for legally opposing the staging of your 5-in-a-row concerts at the Croke Park Stadium location. For that reason we want you and your partners in this venture to be aware that there is the very real prospect that this matter will be taken to the courts to be adjudicated on. This we believe should be factored into your considerations relating to the project.

Indeed Croke Park GAA/PCT (there is an overlap as and between members of both) in suing over 500 of our families have made us battle-hardened and wiser when it comes to Court actions. We are not afraid of the bullies or the Court steps anymore, though the stress, impositions and worries for our families are no less.

Plan B

We believe that you should now seriously consider Plan B – the Bruce plan. Take Garth Brooks to other locations around our beautiful country and thus reduce the cost for people that wish to see him. This was good enough for Bruce Springsteen and it should be good enough for Garth Brooks.